First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic presented today, at the City Hall, contracts on awarding 49 prefabricated houses to refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina living in the territory of Belgrade, in the context of the Regional Housing Programme (RHP).

Minister Dacic recalled that the RHP was agreed on in Sarajevo, and had already been fully implemented all across Serbia. The Programme aims to deal with the problem of refugees in Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, in order for all the cases to be resolved and the question definitively closed.

The Serbian Foreign Minister pointed out that the funds had not been obtained through loans, but grants from the European Union, United States, Germany and other EU Member States, adding that the built housing would remain in Serbia, and would be owned by the RHP beneficiaries.

"Let me recall that as many as 235 housing units, whose total value exceeds EUR 13.5 million, are already being built in Ovca within the third RHP sub-project. We started construction works on the four buildings last September, and we expect them to be completed by the end of 2017.

Moreover, 303 families to receive construction materials for repairing and refurbishing their unfinished houses have been selected, we purchased 69 village houses, and now it's time for prefabricated houses", Dacic said.

The Minister emphasized that the funds enabled 656 refugee families to solve their housing problem, and that the prefabricated houses were probably the most beautiful way of providing for refugees within the RHP, for the beneficiaries' houses are built on their own land plot, where they chose to live.

"The implementation is a long process, not always easy, but I believe that we have succeeded in our ultimate goal - to instil you with faith in a safe future, and to show that you have not been forgotten, and that you are an important segment of society", Minister Dacic underlined.

The event was also attended by Commissioner for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia Vladimir Cucic, Mayor of Belgrade Sinisa Mali and by representatives of the diplomatic corps.